Tien Ngo holds a freshly caught sockeye salmon for sale on the Sunshine V docked at the Steveston docks, Richmond, August 11, 2011. A commercial fishery is in doubt this year due to record low returns of Fraser River sockeye, but other species, such as coho and pink are seeing record high returns.

It’s shaping up to be a summer of record highs and lows when it comes to salmon returns on the B.C. coast.

Fraser River summer sockeye runs — already returning at levels almost half of those predicted — are facing a double whammy from record high water temperatures that could seriously diminish spawning success.

Sockeye runs to the Skeena are the lowest in more than half a century, leading to an outright fishing ban, including — for the first time — on both retention and use of gillnets by first nations. Aboriginal fishers had minor catches before the closure and are permitted to continue fishing for other salmon species, said Mel Kotyk, north coast area director for the federal fisheries department. The news, however, is by no means all gloomy.

Pink salmon returns on the north coast, including in the Nass and Douglas Channel areas, are at an all-time high.

“Pink returns have been phenomenally huge,” Kotyk confirmed in an interview Monday. “The processing plants can’t handle the volume anymore. They’re just unable to cope with the quantity of fish.”

Along the B.C. coast, sport anglers are also enjoying a strong harvest of coho and chinook this summer.

“This has been a pretty spectacular season,” said Owen Bird, executive director of the Sport Fishing Institute of B.C.

Even in the Strait of Georgia, where fishing has been relatively slow since the mid-1990s, anglers have been “enjoying some great fishing,” from Campbell River south to Victoria, Bird said.

The Pacific Salmon Commission last Thursday reported a Fraser River water discharge at Hope of 3,230 cubic metres per second, about 20 per cent lower than average. Meanwhile water temperatures in the Fraser Canyon reached 21.3 degrees Celsius, which is 3.5 degrees higher than average and a record high for that date.

“Sustained exposure of sockeye to Fraser River water temperatures in this range has been shown to cause severe stress and early mortality,” the commission reported.

Jennifer Zener, director of salmon for federal fisheries in the Pacific region, said that the summer sockeye have the greatest challenges since they are passing through during the peak temperatures and have lengthy migrations. “They become more vulnerable to diseases and to running out of energy,” she said.

Zener noted that commercial and sport fisheries “are very unlikely” for Fraser sockeye and that native fisheries have been closed in the lower Fraser and tidal areas and that the goal is to put as many fish onto the spawning beds as possible.

On Friday, the commission lowered the forecast for the Fraser River’s main summer sockeye run to two million fish from a pre-season forecast of 3.7 million fish, which compares with a pre-season estimate of almost nine million pinks.

The key summer runs represent about 80 per cent of sockeye returns to the Fraser River.

In 2009, Fraser River sockeye returns totalled only about 1.5 million fish, down from expectations of 10.4 million.

The federal government appointed the Cohen Commission in late 2009 to investigate Fraser sockeye declines; the commission delivered its report in October 2012, making 75 recommendations to improve the sustainability of the fishery.

As of Monday, an estimated 385,000 sockeye were returning to the Skeena, down from a pre-season estimate of 800,000.

Fisheries’ Kotyk noted that when juveniles from this same four-year sockeye cycle left their spawning grounds in Babine Lake they were observed to be of good size and health, suggesting that ocean conditions caused the poor returns.

Ocean temperature, food availability, and predators could be all factors.

Kotyk added that sockeye spend at least an extra year at sea compared to species such as coho, which may help to explain why sockeye numbers are down and coho are strong.

Under a management system for the Skeena, there is only a commercial fishery if the runs exceed one million sockeye and a sport fishery if the runs exceed 800,000. Fishing is closed when numbers drop below 400,000.

You’d have to look back to the 1950s to find lower returns, Kotyk noted.

In 1951, a slide on the Babine constricted the river, allowing only about one-third of the sockeye to pass upstream. Runs of coho, chinook, and especially pink salmon also suffered. By mid-1952, Ottawa completed a 100-kilometre road north from Hazelton to the site to clear away the rubble and allow the fish to pass unimpeded.

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Tien Ngo holds a freshly caught sockeye salmon for sale on the Sunshine V docked at the Steveston docks, Richmond, August 11, 2011. A commercial fishery is in doubt this year due to record low returns of Fraser River sockeye, but other species, such as coho and pink are seeing record high returns.

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